ACC Best of the Blogs: Week 8

BOSTON COLLEGE

BC Interruption: Eagles Hang On; Beat Hokies 28-23
"Jeff: The game should've been sold out before it was determined that the Red Sox would be playing but that certainly might have had a lot to do with the atmosphere. But anyway, Saturday was Frank Beamer's birthday and Chris Crane decided to give him a present in the form of 14 points. Jeff Smith also threw in 3 points on a fumble on the next drive's kickoff return, but fortunately, the Eagles were not successful in beating themselves. What'd you like about what you saw?"

Eagle in Atlanta: Raycom, ESPN U, and ESPN: what's the story?
"As part of the ACC's deal with ESPN, ABC/ESPN get the first two selections of any ACC home games. One is for ESPN. One is for the 3:30 regional game on ABC. Raycom gets the third choice. After they select, the rights revert back to ESPN. They can put it on ESPN U, Classic, 360, whatever. Road games are subject to the home team's TV deal. For example, all Notre Dame home games are on NBC. The SEC has a deal similar to the ACC where CBS, ESPN and Raycom are all involved. The MAC has a deal with ESPN, so the Kent State game was their property."

CLEMSON

Block-C: Georgia Tech Wrap-up and News
"I’m tired of people saying we should have fired Vic Koenning as well. True, we blew a few crucial third downs that ultimately decided the game but his squad is only getting better. He’s a great defensive mind and as the old saying goes, it’s tough to do anything well on defense when they spend the entire game on the field. This being said, our defense has played great the past two weeks. I know he ran Wyoming into the ground worse than they could have been, but he’s kinda earned his keep around here as a coordinator in my opinion."

Sporting Gnomes: The Weather is Here, Not Seeing TB is Beautiful
"TB, enjoy yourself wasting away in Margaritaville, er Panama City, or a Beach House on the Moon, I don’t care where. I just hope you stay Incommunicado (that still goes for Cullen’s mouth as well). You went to your Bank of Bad Habits one to many times. Fins were to the left, fins were to the right, and you and Spence were the targets in town." (As a lover of all things Buffett, I couldn't resist.)

DUKE

Dudespin: Homecoming weekend welcomes back old Duke
"And while I don't think a poorly timed song can impact a football game, as things began to turn for the worse, Duke debuted the new football theme song, as voted on by the students: Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." But Duke did let me down, it did run around and desert me, it did make me cry, and while I'll never say goodbye, it did hurt me. And Duke, we have known each other so long, but it's not your heart that's been aching, it's mine, and I'm not too shy to say it. But one thing Rick Astley and I agree on, Duke Football, is I'm Never Gonna Give You Up!"

FLORIDA STATE

Chant Rant: How ugly was Thursday night's win?
"Antone's encore. In a TD romp similar to his instant classic at Miami, Smith made like a pinball, bouncing off defenders, breaking tackles and refusing to be denied."

Scalp 'Em: Vociferously Random and Vacuously Meaningless Thoughts
"7. And speaking of a lifetime on the hips, why is it that every time I see Ralph Friedgen and Mike Mangino the words “now there’s a guy who was played wide receiver in college” not come to mind?"

Tomahawk Nation: The Kool-Aid Debate: Do you drink?
"We're averaging 413 yards and over 35 points in our last 3 games, all away from Doak Campbell. We're #1 in Total offense and scoring offense in the ACC! As a unit, the offensive line has far exceeded expectations. Hudson has played out of his mind, while most other members of the line have faired well in run blocking. The Noles run game has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few seasons. I believe this is a combination of better offensive line coaching, a mobile quarterback, improved blocking by the wide receivers, and having Antone in good health."

GEORGIA TECH

GT Sports: Sting Stats -- GT passing game....
"VT throws the next fewest passes behind GT, 19.0 times per game. That's a big margin between the lowest and second lowest in the BCS leagues. However GT is clearly a better passing team than VT, since they throw 60% more often but we have more yards per game and more TD's."

The Legacy x4: A History Lesson in Tradition: The T-Book
"After researching the history and the legacy that the T-book created and left behind the Ramblin' Reck Club has brought the T-book back. Georgia Tech has been without the T-book for nearly 40 years and it is time to end the drought. Today, the T-book talks about the history of Georgia Tech and the traditions that make the Institute so unique. Personal letters to the owners are written by Football Coach Paul Johnson, Men's Basketball Coach Paul Hewitt, Athletic Director Dan Radakovich, Interim President Gary Schuster, and SGA President Nick Wellkamp."

MARYLAND

Turtle Soup: Five Football Games Left
"There can be no more letdowns. The Terps have homecoming this coming week against NC State. The Wolfpack have played horribly (except for the win East Carolina). Maryland should kill them and get to 6-2. Note, the most important word in the previous sentence is “should”. With this team, are you willing to say that they will win for sure?"

Turtle Waxing: Maryland blanks Deacons
"I don't mean to be a rain cloud but with this group I'm not sure this win is a spring board to anything because they have been unable to capitalize on their momentum all season. The three "ranked" teams Maryland has defeated this year: Clemson, California and Wake Forest will probably all be unranked after the new polls are released. This team will face a much more difficult road coming up with games against Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Florida State and Boston College. I could see Maryland going winless against that group but truly can't see them going undefeated. There are still too many holes on defense and the running game, while better at least for one game, is not able to carry the load. It will have to get much better because four of the remaining five opponents are in the top half of the ACC against the run and all are among the top 50 in the nation."

MIAMI

All Canes: Miami 49, Duke 31
"Bigger than the win, the post-game story revolved around quarterback play. Robert Marve again got the start, but it was Jacory Harris who would 'finish'. Marve went 4-of-17 for 64 yards with 1 touchdown and an interception with his pick coming early in the second quarter during a 7-7 tie."

Hall of Canes: Great freshmen ... Veterans not so much
"WR Travis Benjamin, a freshman who had 170 yards in total offense and scored 1 TD. Benjamin averaged 15 yards on punt returns. He is the small, quick, electric playmaker who serves as the perfect complement to the powerful Johnson."

NORTH CAROLINA

Carolina March: Opportunity lost
"Here's a heartening thought, though. There's a good chance four of this weeks' ACC winners turn around and lose next week, and four of the losers come up on top. (Someone will win between Georgia Tech and Virginia, but look at that schedule and tell me everybody else won't end up on the wrong end of fortune come Saturday.)"

Tar Heel Fan: Can UNC Still Win the Coastal?
"Okay, make no mistake, losing to Virginia did serious damage to UNC’s hope of making it to Tampa. In many ways that was sort of a pipe dream anyway but having UVa on the ropes then allowing them up to hang a 2nd division loss on the Heels set up some bad mojo for trying to win the Coastal. Here is the breakdown:"

Tar Heel Mania: OMG We’re 5-2 the Season Is Ruined AHHHHHH
"But what’s so frustrating about this game is also one of the biggest positives that fans should take away from it: the Heels played, to put it kindly, average football yet were still in control of this game for 58 minutes. We now have a true running game with the combination of Shaun Draughn and Ryan Houston. The goal for the defense coming into this game was to contain the running game, and they did just that. And on Saturday we were able to maintain control for most of the game, even though we never led by more that 7 points."

NC STATE

Section Six: FSU 26, NC State 17
"O'Brien's decision to go for a fourth-and-long at our own 30 late in the game was the right one under the circumstances; better to keep it in our hands rather than punt and hope that a tired defense can get its first three-and-out since the first quarter."

StateFans Nation: Scattered Post-Game Thoughts
"Still, this one hurts, especially knowing that Chuck the Clown got to laugh at us again. Based on his reality-free media blitz last week, it’s clear that he’s not only a delusional narcissist (knew that already), but also a pathological liar. I had a work thing last night and couldn’t attend live, but every time I saw his face on TV, I wanted to punch him in the nose."

Yet Another...: Nate "Full of Hate" Irving out for the Maryland Game
"It's unfortunate because we're coming up in Maryland's "lay an egg" portion of the schedule; we're not ranked and they should be huge favorites, giving us a good shot to win. And I only say that half-jokingly. Having Nate in the lineup would've made an upset in College Park even more likely."

VIRGINIA

The Good Ol' Blog: Georgia Tech week: A tough one
"For starters, the Maryland-ECU-Carolina triumvirate were all suffering from injuries or perhaps a suspension (well, in Maryland’s case, the only injury was the team’s missing heart and spine). Georgia Tech has had some dings also, which I’ll talk about later in the week, but this team is overall weathering its storms well. As in, the Wreck hasn’t lost any of its games yet due to attrition. Next man up, indeed."

From Old Virginia: We're going streaking
"Once again, proven wrong in the sort of way that I like. I said we'd need a running game in order to take down UNC and that UNC had proven they can beat a team without one. Now they've proven that they don't always. I'll further call myself out and retract the claim that a win here would make me feel confident about winning the rest of the games on the schedule. After the semi-explosion against Maryland, the running game has regressed back to where we started: 58 yards is not going to get it done consistently."

VIRGINIA TECH

College Game Balls: ACC is BCS minus the C
"The establishment here definitely does not agree with this particular assessment of the ACC. The conference may not have a national title contender this year, but it is the most competitive from top to bottom and is 10-8 versus the other BCS conferences. That 10-8 mark is the best among the other BCS schools and the 18 out of conference games are the most by any BCS conference. Translation, they play out of conference often and prove their worth. A better song would have been “Da Big East Iza Wanksta”"

Fire Bryan Stinespring: Hokies Ranked #110 in Total Offense? WTF?!?!?
"The Hokie Guru is trying to find some positives on our offense because he is a "glass is half full" type of guy. That's just the way the Hokie Guru is. We can't go through life massively negative all the time, right? Tyrod Taylor is the lone bright spot on this team; he rushed for 110 yards against Boston College last night. Dustin Keys also had three field goals last night and might well be the offensive player of the year on this team."

Tech Sideline: Three Former Hokies Say Thanks
"Here’s an interesting item that made its way into our Inbox. It’s a letter from three former Hokies (Xavier Adibi, Duane Brown and Brandon Flowers) that simply says thanks to the VT community. It’s in PDF format and is about 3 MB in size, so it will take a while to load, but check it out."

Virginia Tech Fan: Immediate Impressions: Boston College Game
"Last nights Boston College game held true to Virginia Tech’s 2008 football season form in that it was another close game between even teams that could have easily turned on the result of any one of a number of plays. It was just another nail-bitter in a season that’s been full of them, but unfortunately the Hokies were on the wrong end of this one. You could simplify this game down to the fact that some basic things that have gone Virginia Tech’s way for many of close wins this year, like penalties, clutch field goals, Tyrod’s protection of the football, etc, finally didn’t. But the reality is that this game was just weird."

Wild Turkey CFR: We're #110
"Every Hokie offensive player was outscored by Dustin Keys, Brett Warren, Macho Harris, the BC punt returner, the Red Sox, the Rays, the Devil Rays, and the New Jersey Devils. The botched short yardage plays are particularly frustrating. The Hokies failed twice on 3rd and 1 and again on 4th and 1 on plays that take entirely too long to develop. Why are we running to the edge with Darren Evans, a downhill runner? Stiney tends to outsmart himself. "Hmm, they will be expecting me to call the play that works... so let's run this other play!" I long for the days when we had an average offense."

WAKE FOREST

Old Gold and Blog: That still happened
"There aren't any excuses left. There aren't any rose colored glasses. There aren't any silver linings, either. The Deacs were dominated by Maryland in every aspect of the game, with no one to blame but themselves. Okay, sure, had Swank been available to play Wake scores at least 6 points in the first half and maybe things play out differently, but I don't think anyone can honestly say that Sam Swank would have been enough to turn this one around."